Many people, including a lot of California residents, are surprised when they learn that the Golden State is the second-largest producer of rice in the U.S. Arkansas is the leading rice-growing state in the nation.
They’re often even more surprised when they learn that California rice farmers specialize in short and medium grain rice, which have sticky, moist characteristics, making both grains the rice of choice for nearly every Japanese restaurant – think sushi – in America.
These varieties of California-grown rice also are favored in Japan, which imports about 770,000 metric tons of rice annually from the U.S., the vast majority of which comes from growers in the Sacramento Valley, which is referred to as California Rice Country. Some rice is also grown in the San Joaquin Valley but about 90% of the total grown in the state is produced in the Sacramento Valley region.
Growers in the Sacramento Valley also produce numerous specialty rice varieties, including some long-grain rice, including basmati, jasmine, arborio, black japonica and numerous others.
For example, Richvale California-based Lundberg Family Farms not only specializes in growing numerous specialty rice varieties, it also packages, markets and sells more than 17 different rice varieties, as well as value-added products like convenient rice dinner mixes, to grocery stores throughout the U.S. under its own multi-million dollar brand.
California rice farming is a phenomenal success and growth story, having reached about $1 billion annually in 2021.
Rice Farming and its related support functions – packing, transportation, warehousing and the like – serves as the primary economic engine for the numerous rural communities in the Sacramento Valley Rice Country. As rice farming and the industry goes, so goes the fortunes of local grocers, restaurants and nearly every other small business in the region.
California rice growers and the related industry have weathered many bad times since the first crops were planted in the Sacramento Valley in the early 1900’s, but the current drought is perhaps the biggest challenge rice farmers have faced to date.
California rice growers generally plant a half-million acres or more of rice annually, according to a recent report from UC Davis agricultural economist Daniel Sumner. However, because of the drought, he and others estimate that about that amount – around 250,000 acres and perhaps even less – were planted this year.
In past droughts Sacramento Valley rice farmers have generally fared pretty well because the region gets more rain and plenty of water runoff from snow than do lower farming regions like the Central Valley.
Many farm-irrigation districts in the Sacramento Valley also hold senior water rights based on historical claims, which in the past has allowed them to get as much as 75% of their normal irrigation water supplies. In contrast, farmers in the Central Valley have been existing on a fraction of that allocation amount during past droughts.
But this year Sacramento Valley rice growers are feeling the sting, receiving about 18% of their normal water allocation from the Federal Bureau of Reclamation, which is the lowest allocation on record.
In addition to the overall approximately 50% reduction of rice acreage planted in the Sacramento Valley, things are even worse in some parts of California rice country, particularly in Glenn and Colusa counties, where according to data from the California Rice Commission about 100,000 acres of rice are planted annually. This year, according to various estimates, less than 3,000 acres are being planted.
A few growers in the two counties, as well as elsewhere in the Sacramento Valley, even decided in May and June not to plant at all this year, fallowing their acreage completely.
Rice is a thirsty crop compared to most of the other 400-plus crops grown in California. It ranks about equally with alfalfa as the most water-intensive crop grown in the state, according to data from the UC Davis Agricultural Issues Center and USDA.
This fact alone leads many people in drought-plagued California to immediately argue that farmers have no business growing rice in the state. Reasonable people can reasonably agree or disagree on this. However, the fact is that rice is grown in California and is a crop and an industry that contributes $1 billion annually to the state’s economy and serves as the primary source of economic vitality for numerous rural counties and the people who live in them in the Sacramento Valley.
Water and how and where it should be used is emerging as perhaps the most contentious issue in California as the drought continues with no immediate end in sight.
In a report (Jobs and Irrigation During Drought in California) published last year in California Water Blog, Josue Medelin-Azuara and Jay Lund of the UC Davis Center for Watershed Sciences said roughly 40% of California’s water use is agricultural.
In the report they say that “fruits, nuts and vegetables support most agricultural gross revenues, employment and income in California agriculture.”
Using Department of Water Resources data, they found that “nearly 85% of all employment and revenues are from growing fruits, nuts and vegetables, which are about half of California’s irrigated acreage.”
“Growing water scarcity for agriculture is probably best managed using water markets and pricing so the industry and the state can make the most of limited supplies,” Medellin-Azuara and Lund concluded in the report.
“Efforts to impose detailed arbitrary limits on crops and regions are unlikely to serve the economic and environmental interests of California,” the report says, “but rather further impoverish rural areas and distract from discussions needed for long-term progress.”
The Medellin-Azuara water market approach might make the most sense for water allocation in California if the drought persists.
Equally important though is the need for added water storage in California for agricultural uses.
Meanwhile, there’s a lot of uncertainty in the Sacramento Valley rice country, where the economy is dependent on rice farming and the rice industry. Unemployment is rising, productive farmland is being fallowed, and business is down not only for those who own businesses directly involved in the rice industry but also for the numerous small businesses in the rural communities, ranging from grocery stores and restaurants to tire shops and clothing stores. California-grown rice is eaten and enjoyed throughout the country and the world. But the people who live and work in California’s Sacramento Valley rice country literally depend on it for their livelihood.
Will rice farming in California survive the drought? Yes. But it might not look the same as it does today.
My Job Depends on Ag Magazine columnist and contributing editor Victor Martino is an agrifood industry consultant, entrepreneur and writer. One of his passions and current projects is working with farmers who want to develop their own branded food products. You can contact him at: victormartino415@gmail.com.
